


Smiles and Kisses

by winterfool



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 03:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3366212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterfool/pseuds/winterfool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inquisitor Lavellan's smile has become Cullen's favourite thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smiles and Kisses

Somewhere along the way Eilidh’s smile had become Cullen’s favourite thing. 

It had crept up on him without warning. When he first met her in Haven she was still uncertain, and wary. She had been ripped from everything familiar, thrust into strange, dangerous territory by forces no one quite understood, and was being asked to hold up a broken sky. She had been solemn, her mouth always slightly drawn down at the corners, every word that passed her lips precisely chosen and considered with care.

Then they had been talking of the Inquisition’s forces and his plans for training recruits, and something he had had amused her and she had smiled. It was the first real smile he had seen from her. Her lips had stretched upwards, her nose wrinkling slightly, and the skin around the corners of her eyes had creased into tiny, delicate lines. Her whole face was suddenly softer, filled with a humour he hadn’t noticed before. And Cullen thought, _Oh._

He found himself watching for glimpses of that smile – for the corners of her mouth just twitching upwards, or her eyes sparkling with laughter. 

The next time he saw it was when they took on the Breach and for an all-too-brief moment it seemed like they had won. Like she had won. Elation was etched into her features that night, and her smile had a kind of relieved giddyness to it. Cullen couldn’t help wondering what that smile might feel like against his own lips.

Despite things being worse than ever, for some reason she smiled more at Skyhold. And sometimes – and then more often – she smiled at _him_ , so any thoughts he had fled from his mind and it was struggle to remember to how to breathe (although he didn’t mind the not-breathing; it was in a way pleasant).

Then came the day on the battlements when he abandoned his usual, hard-clung-to caution, just giving into the wanting, and finally pressed his mouth to hers. He discovered that her smile felt warm, the corners of her mouth gently tickling his unshaven jaw as their lips moved together, teasing and exploring. 

He thought perhaps he liked it best when he was able to pull a smile out of her unexpectedly, like when he put his inhibitions to one side and asked her to dance on the balcony of the Winter Palace. Being able to make the lines of her face transform, to change weariness or sadness to light and pleasure was as important an accomplishment to him as any of the victories he had won with the Inquisition’s forces. 

He didn’t think it was possible to love her smile more than he did, until he saw it peeking up at him over the edges of his own fur in which Eilidh sat, wrapped up, in his bed, her hair tumbled loose about her shoulders and her eyes bright as they wandered over his naked chest. There was a new tenderness to the upturn of her lips, that made him catch his breath and his hard miss a bit. It was the kind of intimacy that only came with memorising the lines of each other’s body and running your fingers over each other’s bare skin in the hazy evening light as you lay with limbs entwined.

“That looks better on you,” he said, “Maybe you should you keep it.”

Her smile widened into a lazy grin. “I’d hate to rob you of your finery.”

Pushing himself up, he leaned in close so that the tip of his nose just grazed hers. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Just a little bit, _emma lath_ ,” she whispered, her fingers curling tightly into the hair at the nape of his neck.

She had started calling him that when they had fallen into each other’s arms after Adamant, any hesitation or reasons they had for holding back utterly important in the wake of what they had experienced at the fortress. Cullen didn’t know exactly what it meant, although he knew it was some term of endearment. He wished he did. Eilidh’s heritage and culture were so important to her, he wanted to show her in some way that he understood and respected that.

It was a half-formed idea of how he might do just that which one day, when Eilidh was away from Skyhold, lead him to speak to Solas. The elven mage was reading in the study he had claimed for himself, and looked up with mild curiosity as the Commander stepped inside and shut the door behind him. 

For a few seconds Cullen didn’t speak, shuffling his feet awkwardly.

“I, uh, I was wondering ... I was hoping you might agree to, um. To teach me some Elven.”

Solas’ eyebrows stretched upwards. “Oh?” 

“Um. Yes. F-for Eilidh.”

“Ah.” 

Cullen felt like his face was on fire. Time slowed to a crawl as he made himself withstand Solas’ scrunity. His embarrassment increased tenfold with each second until finally, to his crushing relief, Solas nodded, and asked only, “Is there anything particular you wanted to know?”

It was some days later when he climbed the ladder to his loft only to find Eilidh curled up on his bed. She propped herself up on one elbow as he came in and gave him a tired smile. He hadn’t seen her in a couple of days, since she had set out somewhere with Vivienne. There were new lines of sadness around her eyes, and something in her expression made Cullen’s chest tighten painfully.

“Hi,” she said as he sat down on edge of the bed nearest her.

Reaching out to cradle her face in his hand, he smiled and leaned forward to press a tender kiss to her lips. She kissed him back slowly, like she wanted to savour the taste of him, and seemed reluctant to pull away, her mouth lingering wistfully against his.

“It’s good to see you,” Cullen said, once he had caught his breath. “I didn’t know you were back.”

“I didn’t really stop to say hello to anyone.”

That was entirely unlike her. Eilidh had gone out of her way to learn as many names as faces as she could, and spend as much free time as possible talking to the people in Skyhold. She called it her Clan mentality – they were all united by their cause, but she wanted them to be connected as people. To Cullen it was the mark of a good leader.

He frowned. “Is something wrong?”

“I,” she started, then stopped. A heavy sigh escaped her, her shoulders slumping down. “It’s just ... been a long couple of days. I don’t really feel like talking about it just yet.”

“Alright.”

Her eyes sought his, big and green and pleading. “I just wanted to see you. Do you think you could hold me, for a while?”

He felt like his body wasn’t big enough to contain all that he was feeling for her at that moment. Gently he ran his thumb along her cheekbone, the only thought currently in his mind that he wanted to do something to try and ease some of sadness she was feeling. 

Already feeling the blush heating his cheeks, he licked his lips nervously and hoped he wasn’t about to make a complete fool of himself. 

“For as long as you want, _ma vhenan_.”

Surprise flickered over her features, and then she smiled; a joyful, beaming smile that creased her features and lit up her whole face like the glowing of the sun.

For that smile, Cullen would gladly have played the biggest fool in Thedas.


End file.
